Tour de France Drugs and Drug Witch Hunts

Tour de France drugs and drug witch hunts. Baseball, record setters, and steroids. Basketball, gambling referees, sex crazy players, and felons. Football, dog fighting, steroids, and rich owners wanting the public to buy them new stadiums. Auto racing, cheating by teams, sanctioning bodies fighting over sponsorships. Welcome to big time sports. Welcome to mainstream, welcome to the wide world of entertainment. Isn’t that what sports are supposed to be, entertainment? It takes the fun out of watching sports for me. All of these mainstream sports that are supposed to be the backbone of the American weekend. It seems to me I might as well watch COPS, CSI, and Americas Funniest Home Video as a sports event. There is not a week that goes by that some sports star from any of the mainstream sports, or a team owner, or an official, or a who knows who is in trouble with the law. And we aren’t talking traffic tickets either. It is a wide array of crimes, from misdemeanors, to felonies, to really bad grooming habits. And then there is nothing quite like seeing a multi millionaire spoiled brat that is really good at hitting, kicking, catching, dribbling a ball, scratching his crotch, or spitting, throwing a major league temper tantrum just because he can. I have seen “sports stars” go into sponsors warehouses and fill up grocery carts with free products to give away as Christmas presents. Thousands and thousands of dollars in merchandise. I believe in the adage from the Joan Baez song “take what you need and leave the rest”. To me it just seemed a bit ungrateful, and some of the ones I have seen do it are names that any person in America would recognize. I would never say that a pro doesn’t deserve their money especially in motocross where pros have been underpaid forever. And, if they can get their endorsement money, good for them. The problem as I see it is motocross is very small. We are not mainstream as much as many would like to tout. The total number of motocross racers in this country is very small in relation to any of the so called “real sports” football, baseball, basketball, even soccer. When goggle companies pay the 10th place rider $10,000. to wear their products that money has to come from somewhere. Out of your pocket. $80. goggles anyone? If this sport is ever going to go mainstream it will have to do the NASCAR thing, teams sponsored by Preparation H, Ovaltine, Log Cabin Syrup, and of course Viagra. And speaking of mainstream, prepare yourself for tabloid journalism to hit motocross just like it does in the other sports. You think the fuel problem was a fiasco, wait until they start testing for performance enhancing drugs. If we couldn’t get gas right imagine the problems with drug testing. Think about this, imagine the stories in the press if a major baseball star say from the Yankees destroyed his rental car racing it around town. Motocross stars have gotten away with that for years, and even bragged about it. How much fun would Sports Illustrated have with that if motocross was mainstream. If you think for one second that pro motocrossers are pure as the driven snow, I have some beach front property in San Bernardino that I would like to sell you. We have the same percentage of idiots that other sports have, we just hide it better. For the most part the motocross media wants to promote our sport in a good light. Nearly all of them race or have raced. Occasionally they will call out a racer, or other in the sport for bad behavior. But, believe me young pros with money behave badly no matter what sport they participate. It is a combination of too little education, too much money, low end of the gene pool parents, and being coddled because they are a sports star. And what is even scarier it starts at the amateur level. I enjoy not reading about motocross racers in the National Enquirer, seeing factory riders on TMZ.com without their underwear on, or having to look at their mugshots on Americas most Pathetic every night. Personally, I think mainstream is way overrated. Let’s keep Motocross the way it is, why ruin a good thing.